Arguments for biodiversity conservation: factors influencing their observed effectiveness in European case studies

Making a strong case for biodiversity protection is central to meeting the biodiversity targets in international agreements such as the CBD and achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Effective arguments are needed to convince diverse actors that protection is worthwhile, and can play a crucial role in closing the implementation gap between biodiversity policy targets and outcomes. Drawing on a database of arguments from 11 European case studies, along with additional interview and case study material from all 13 case studies of the BESAFE project, we analysed relationships between potential and observed effectiveness of arguments. Our results show that strong logic, robustness, and timing of arguments are necessary but not sufficient conditions for arguments to be effective. We find that use of multiple and diverse arguments can enhance effectiveness by broadening the appeal to wider audiences, especially when arguments are repeated and refined through constructive dialogue. We discuss the role of framing, bundling and tailoring arguments to audiences in increasing effectiveness. Our results provide further support for the current shift towards recognition of value pluralism in biodiversity science and decision-making. We hope our results will help to demonstrate more convincingly the value of biodiversity to stakeholders in decision processes and thus build better cases for its conservation.     

How does biodiversity conservation argumentation generate effects in policy cycles?

Arguments in the formulation, implementation and evaluation of biodiversity policy frame conservation in a range of ways and express interests that can be conflicting. Policy processes are cyclic and iterative by nature and as policies are constantly reformulated, argumentation has an important role at each policy stage. In this paper, we utilise the policy cycle model to shed light on biodiversity-related policy processes and the ways in which argumentation generates effects at different stages of these processes. The paper first draws on literature and the theory-driven assumptions are then illustrated with insights from four European case studies on different policy processes in which biodiversity conservation plays a role. The analysis shows that argumentation tends to evolve over the course of the policy cycle, and framing has a key role across the different policy stages. It is concluded that the ways in which arguments persist, accumulate, diffuse, and replace old arguments, should be the target of increased attention in policy analysis.     

Cues to paternity: Do partner fidelity and offspring resemblance predict daughter-directed sexual aversions?

Despite the profound influence of relatedness on mating and cooperative behavior in humans, the cues men use to assess paternity and guide offspring-directed behavior have yet to be fully resolved. According to leading theories of kin detection, kinship cues should influence both sexual and altruistic motivations because of fitness consequences associated with inbreeding and welfare tradeoff decisions, respectively. Prior work with paternity assessment, however, has generally evaluated candidate cues solely by demonstrating associations with altruism. Here we (i) replicate past work that found effects of phenotypic resemblance and perceived partner fidelity on offspring investment; and (ii) evaluate whether both phenotypic resemblance and perceived partner fidelity meet the more stringent criteria suggested by theory—that is, whether they also predict inbreeding aversions. We report on two studies, one from a population-based sample of Finnish fathers (N?=?390), the other from a Mechanical Turk sample (N?=?700), and furnish evidence in strong support of perceived partner fidelity as a cue to paternity. Support for resemblance as a cue to paternity was decidedly weaker. We discuss a non-kin-based role that resemblance might play in altruistic decision-making, consider whether men might use additional kinship cues to meet the computational challenges associated with paternity assessment, and provide suggestions for future research.     

Community structure of insect herbivores is driven by conservatism,escalation and divergence of defensive traits in Ficus

Escalation (macroevolutionary increase) or divergence (disparity between relatives) in trait values are two frequent outcomes of the plant‐herbivore arms race. We studied the defences and caterpillars associated with 21 sympatric New Guinean figs. Herbivore generalists were concentrated on hosts with low protease and oxidative activity. The distribution of specialists correlated with phylogeny, protease and trichomes. Additionally, highly specialised Asota moths used alkaloid rich plants. The evolution of proteases was conserved, alkaloid diversity has escalated across the studied species, oxidative activity has escalated within one clade, and trichomes have diverged across the phylogeny. Herbivore specificity correlated with their response to host defences: escalating traits largely affected generalists and divergent traits specialists; but the effect of escalating traits on extreme specialists was positive. In turn, the evolution of defences in Ficus can be driven towards both escalation and divergence in individual traits, in combination providing protection against a broad spectrum of herbivores.     

Changes in soil carbon with stand age – an evaluation of a modelling method with empirical data

Forest soils store a substantial amount of carbon, often more than the forest vegetation does. Estimates of the amount of soil carbon, and in particular estimates of changes in these amounts are still inaccurate. Measuring soil carbon is laborious, and measurements taken at a few statistically unrepresentative sites are difficult to scale to larger areas. We combined a simple dynamic model of soil carbon with litter production estimated on the basis of stand parameters, models of tree allometry and biomass turnover rates of different biomass components. This integrated method was used to simulate soil carbon as forest stands develop. The results were compared with measurements of soil carbon from 64 forest sites in southern Finland. Measured carbon stocks in the organic soil layer increased by an average of 4.7±1.4 g m^?2 a^?1 with increasing stand age and no significant changes were measured in the amount of carbon in mineral soil. Our integrated method indicated that soil carbon stocks declined to a minimum 20 years after clear‐cutting and the subsequent increase in the soil carbon stock (F/H ? 1 m) was 5.8±1.0 g m^?2 a^?1 averaged over the period to next harvesting (～125 years). Simulated soil carbon accumulation slowed down considerably in stands older than 50 years. The carbon stock measured (F/H ? 1 m) for the study area averaged 6.8±2.5 kg m^?2. The simulated carbon stock in soil was 7.0±0.6 kg m^?2 on average. These tests of the validity of the integrated model suggest that this method is suitable for estimating the amount of carbon in soil and its changes on regional scales.     

Large-scale spatial and temporal patterns in population dynamics of the stoat, Mustela erminea, and the least weasel, M. nivalis, in Finland

The stoat and the least weasel are specialist predators of small rodents, and therefore their numbers are likely to depend on the availability of voles. These small predators are ecologically alike, but they differ somewhat in their diet. The stoat is larger in size than the least weasel and therefore capable of using a wider variety of prey species, while the least weasel is more restricted to small mammals. Voles in northern Fennoscandia exhibit cyclic dynamics of 3–5 years with large-scale spatial synchrony and geographical trends in cycle length and amplitude. We predicted that the cyclic dynamics of voles are reflected in the dynamics of their predators with slight differences between the stoat and the least weasel. In this study we use snow-tracking data to characterize the dynamics of small mustelids. The data were collected from different parts of Finland using permanent triangle-shaped census routes of 12 km in 1989 to 2003. Population fluctuations of small mustelids were generally multiannually periodic and in synchrony over large areas, but we did not find any clear geographical gradient in the attribute of small mustelid dynamics comparable to those observed in vole population fluctuations. Instead, we found a similar decreasing temporal trend in the abundances of both species as has been recently reported for voles.     

Alphavirus Replicase Protein NSP1 Induces Filopodia and Rearrangement of Actin Filaments

Expression of the NSP1 protein of Semliki Forest virus and Sindbis virus in cultured cells induced filopodia-like extensions containing NSP1 but not F actin. The actin stress fibers disappeared, whereas vimentin, keratin, and tubulin networks remained intact. The effects of NSP1 were dependent on its palmitoylation but not on its enzymatic activities and were also observed in virus-infected cells.     

Heterospecific attraction and food resources in migrants' breeding patch selection in northern boreal forest

We studied experimentally how heterospecific attraction may affect habitat selection of migrant passerine birds in Finnish Lapland. We manipulated the densities of resident tit species (Parus spp.). In four study plots residents were removed before the arrival of the migrants in the first study year, and in four other plots their densities were increased by releasing caught individuals. In the second year the treatments of the areas were reversed, allowing paired comparisons within each plot. We also investigated the relative abundance of arthropods in the study plots by the sweep-net method. This allowed us to estimate the effect of food resources on the abundance of birds. The heterospecific attraction hypothesis predicts that densities of migrant species (especially habitat generalists) would be higher during increased resident density. Results supported this prediction. Densities and number of the most abundant migrant species were significantly higher when resident density was increased than when they were removed. On the species level the redwing (Turdus iliacus) showed the strongest positive response to the increased abundance of tits. Migrant bird abundances seemed not to vary in parallel with relative arthropod abundance, with the exception of the pied flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca) which showed a strongly positive correlation with many arthropod groups. The results of the experiment indicate that migrants can use resident tit species as a cue to a profitable breeding patch. The relationship between the abundance of the birds and arthropods suggests that annual changes in food resources during the breeding season probably do not have a very important effect on bird populations in these areas. The results stress the importance of positive interspecific interactions in structuring northern breeding bird communities. Received: 1 September 1997 / Accepted: 22 January 1998